Today I had to go grocery shopping. Gavin was along for the ride so I used the opportunity to teach him a few things. We only had a short time between dropping off and picking up the boys so we had to be quick. I put Gavin in charge of the grocery list. It was his job to tell me what we needed and once we got it, to scratch it off the list.
These are skills he needs to learn. He did a pretty good job. He didn’t like the fact we had to go out of order but he coped pretty well. I also had him focus on paying attention to everyone and everything around him. He tends to get lost in counting the floor tiles so we worked on ignoring the tiles and focusing on not walking into people and things. This is not an easy task for him but he did pretty well.
When you have Autistic kids you have to take every opportunity to teach them the life skills they need to have any sort of independence in the future. Even the gorcery store is full of valuable lessons……
Sounds like you did a good job, daddy!! And way to go, Gavin!
What a great opportunity you took to work with Gavin on some of the areas he struggles! Sounds like he did a pretty good job too! 🙂 I know what you mean about taking every opportunity to teach children with Autism life skills. Owen (6 yrs) really struggles with having conversations with people. He is literally obsessed with monster trucks. He will drone on and on for hours (no exaggeration) about particular trucks statistics, the drivers, ect. I really try to work with him on recognizing social cues and being receptive to the fact that not everyone is as into trucks as him. It's definitely not easy! He never seems to grasp this. Does Gavin have this issue? Any input on what you do to work with him in this area?